NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
21 1 
my notice. There was something green about it which I could not distinguish 
before it quickly vanished in a curious way. It had evidently been disturbed by 
my presence. For, presently, another bee came, and disappeared, after a little 
manoeuvering, at the same spot. This time I noticed the green substance was a 
piece of leaf which it carried edgeways underneath its body. Examination of the 
wood soon showed a hole into which the bees had gone. Other bees presently 
came out of the hole without anything and sped away, probably for fresh 
supplies. A week or two afterwards I found a faulty place in this wooden bulk, 
about two feet from the bees’ entrance hole. I forced a piece of the wood away 
and came upon the other end of a tunnel which the bees had burrowed just below 
the surface. Here I came upon the beginning of a series of short tubes con- 
structed of pieces of leaves. They are just about the length and size of a bee 
when it is rolled up. One end of the tube is convex in form, the other concave. 
They lie in the tunnel in a line, filling it up, the convex of one fitting into the 
concave of the other. 
In each tube is deposited a grub of their kind before the bees have sealed it 
up. Sawdust lay about the entrance to the tunnel. It was fluffy and light as 
air, very different, in this respect, from the sawdust produced by the carpenter’s 
saw ! I gather from what I observed that the leaf-cutting bee and the carpenter 
bee are one and the same. Kirby, the entomologist, says the leaf-cutting bee gets 
astride of the leaf on its edge, and commences there the cutting-out process. The 
pieces of leaf which I saw correspond in length with that of the bee. 
It is curious to notice how bees use their legs and feet for other things than 
walking. With them, they open the close-fitting petals of flowers. Sometimes 
the snapdragon petals sit firmly together, and the bee is forced to push them apart 
with its feet so as to get its head into the flower. A few days ago I picked up 
a bee which was starved with cold. As I did so, it held up a fore foot in an 
imploring, protecting way, as if asking me not to hurt it. 
Chelmsford , September 18, 1906. J. Gledstone. 
440. Ants. — When the basement of our house was invaded by garden ants 
early in September, we were advised “ to find the Queen.” We have, however, 
succeeded in getting rid of them by washing the floors and shelves with turpen- 
tine and a strong solution of carbolic alternately morning and night. 
West Kensington. W. C. B. 
441. Notonecta glauca in London.— The heavy rain of the night of 
October 9 produced a pool of water some two yards square in a hollow of an 
asphalted playground in Old Battersea. On the morning of the 10th this pool 
contained at least half a dozen water boatmen ( Notonecta g/auca). One insect 
had an elytron injured as if by a sharp side blow. The wind had been blowing 
from the south-west. The nearest origin which I can suggest for the visitors is 
Wimbledon Common. W. Johnson. 
9, Lavender Road , Clapham Junction , S. W. 1 
October to, 1906. t 
442. Grasshoppers. — In this district there has been a noticeable scarcity 
of grasshoppers. In fact, I have not once heard the familiar “chirp” this 
summer, and have come across very few (and those of a small size) in the fields. 
Gravelpits, Gomshall, Surrey , Arthur T. Cummings. 
October^, 1906. 
443. Salvia verticillata. — For two years there was a fine clump of 
Salvia verticillata on waste ground at Muswell Hill. A botanical ftiend tells me 
that it has occurred elsewhere in North London. It can only be classed as a 
“ casual ” at present. 
68, North Hill , Highga/e, N. 
J. E. Cooper. 
